


A Place Called Home (No-Name Valley Remix)

by flightinflame



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, Alternate Universe - Western, Charles Xavier has a Ph.D in Adorable, Charles Xavier in a Wheelchair, Family, Gen, POV Child, Protective Erik
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:28:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25240120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flightinflame/pseuds/flightinflame
Summary: Nina loves her Papa, and is happy with all her animal friends. When Charles arrives, Papa smiles more, and Nina wants Charles to stay with them forever.
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier, Nina Gurzsky & Charles Xavier, Nina Gurzsky & Erik Lehnsherr
Comments: 9
Kudos: 86
Collections: X-Men Remix Madness 2020





	A Place Called Home (No-Name Valley Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [IreneADonovan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/IreneADonovan/gifts).
  * Inspired by [No-Name Valley](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18445358) by [IreneADonovan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/IreneADonovan/pseuds/IreneADonovan). 
  * In response to a prompt by [IreneADonovan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/IreneADonovan/pseuds/IreneADonovan) in the [xmen_remix_madness2020](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/xmen_remix_madness2020) collection. 



> Love the fic this is based on, and the world that it depicts. This is Nina's view of the events.
> 
> This is for Irene, who is a truly lovely person and deserves all the nice things.

There was only one animal that Papa wanted Nina to fear, when she was a little girl. It wasn't the coyotes that sang to her as the moon rose, or the rattlesnakes that twisted so comfortably around her arms, or the pumas that sometimes stalked down from the mountains, to curl up against her and tell her stories of their adventures. Papa sometimes looked a little uncertain when he saw those friends, but he never wished for her to fear them. He only wanted her to be afraid of the animal that had killed her Mama, the only animal that wouldn't listen when she spoke. Man.

Nina barely remembered her Mama. She remembered a sense of warmth, of safety. She had some of her Mama's old clothes, and would sit and trace the pretty embroidery, and would show each new bird that arrived her favourite pieces. And she loved her Papa, and she didn't need to worry about man, because Papa could go into town and handle any work that needed doing, and man never came to where they lived. She could talk to all of her animal friends, and not be afraid, because the humans were far away.

Until the day Charles had arrived, bringing with him a horse that she made her friend, and brought a new rhythm to her life. Charles taught her, more than her Papa could - it wasn't that her Papa wasn't clever, he was the cleverest, but he hadn't been to school as a child and couldn't teach her the things that Charles could. And she liked Charles, liked sitting beside him in his wheeled chair and introducing him to her friends. She feared man, but she didn't fear Charles, Charles was a friend just like his horse.

And Charles stayed. Even as he recovered, no longer weak from his injury, wheeling himself around and balancing himself carefully on the braces Papa had made (because Papa was the cleverest) and they were a happy little family, and Papa smiled more than she could ever remember him smiling.

And then man had come, and taken Charles, and she'd understood Papa's fear as they threw Charles into a wagon and took him away, and she cried and sobbed and tried to get her Papa to bring Charles back, because it wasn't fair, Charles was theirs and he shouldn't be taken away. Papa said they thought Charles had hurt his sister, but Charles wouldn't hurt anyone, she knew that, she was sure of it.

Then they were off to town, and she stayed in the room, knowing that man was outside. She played with the fingerpuppets Charles had made for her, and waited, and then she met a man called Matt. He was kind, and told her he would try to get Charles back, looking her in the eye and talking honestly, and she trusted it, even when they were in court.

When they were in court, she could see Charles again. He'd lost weight and he looked pale and sad and grey around the edges. The air was hot and dusty and she didn't understand the words, fidgeting in her seat in the pretty dress Papa had insisted she wore, with the finger puppets on her lap. She looked up at Papa, and he was frowning, and she stayed quiet, because Charles should be coming home, but Papa looked so sad. The man, Matt, that was her friend kept talking, and then the man in charge was telling Matt not to talk any more, and Papa looked like he would cry, right until a woman arrived, and hugged Charles.

And then Papa gave her shoulder a gentle push, and told her she could go and hug Charles as well, as the judge brought a hammer down on the desk. She ran forwards, squeezing in beside the woman's skirts and clambering up onto Charles's lap so he could feel her embrace, pressing her face against his own, and then Papa lifted her off to take her home, and there was a party late into the night, far past her bedtime, and she ended up curling up on Charles and sleeping there, her head on his shoulder, content and knowing he was home, that man wouldn't take her Charles away like they had taken her Mama.

The next morning, she found Papa and Charles cuddled up together in bed, and cuddled up beside them. Papa smiled down at her, and told her that things were going to change, but that they would change in a good way. That Charles was going to run a school, and she would have friends, and her Papa would help, and they would be happy.

She believed it, when he said they would be happy. She would have her Papa and Charles, and new friends, and they would be happy. She watched as Papa built the houses, and Charles started the school, and knew that she wasn't scared of any animal, not even man. Because if man came to attack them, she knew she wasn't on her own. She was surrounded by friends and family, and safe in her home.

**Author's Note:**

> Please do comment if you've enjoyed this.


End file.
